Crime, punishment and politics

No more delays. It's time for the Illinois legislature to reform the death penalty--the broken system that led to the release of 13 wrongly convicted men from Death Row and prompted the nearly three-year-old moratorium on executions.

Elections are over. Legislators are back in Springfield for the fall veto session. They have before them the thoughtful, comprehensive report issued last spring by the governor's commission on capital punishment, which detailed the need for 85 reforms.

The House and Senate conducted numerous legislative hearings throughout the summer that detailed the pros and cons of various reform proposals. The issue has been studied. And studied. And studied. It is time to act.

The key to reform starts in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will meet in early December to debate various pieces of death penalty legislation. On the table is Gov. George Ryan's package of reforms based on some of the commission's recommendations. More could--and should--be added.

The disastrous Death Row clemency hearings held last month dealt a political blow to the momentum of Illinois' reform movement. The genuine grief of victims' families expressed at those hearings appears to have convinced Ryan not to grant mass clemency.

But the backlash nevertheless was palpable Tuesday when the Illinois House voted overwhelmingly to override Ryan's amendatory veto of an anti-terrorism bill, to which he has added a series of minor reforms. The House vote revives an effort to expand the death penalty.

Lawmakers' resentment toward Ryan hasn't diminished. The license-for-bribes scandal that festered while Ryan was secretary of state ended up costing the GOP the governor's mansion. There is not a great deal of sentiment to give Ryan a big victory in his final days in office.

But this is not about George Ryan. This is about restoring faith in the Illinois criminal justice system. This about assuring that no more innocent people get sent to Death Row.

Mistakes continue to be made--not just in death penalty cases but throughout the system.

This page has urged the passage of several critical reform proposals. They include:

- Sharply reducing the number of eligibility factors that qualify a defendant for a death sentence. Illinois' 20 factors invites an arbitrariness that borders on unconstitutionality.

- Videotaping all interrogations and confessions that are conducted in police custody.

- Conducting police lineups by showing suspects to a witness sequentially, rather than simultaneously, to reduce faulty eyewitness identifications.

- Mandating that county prosecutors gain approval from a centralized review panel headed by the attorney general before pursuing a death sentence.

- Abolishing the death penalty for mentally retarded suspects.

Other reforms should be passed, but the ones cited above represent a good place to start.

This matter will not fade away--Gov.-elect Rod Blagojevich supports retaining the moratorium until reforms are in place. Lawmakers have an opportunity to create a model for the rest of the nation. They have the chance to raise confidence that Illinois will never again convict the wrong people of terrible crimes while letting the guilty ones go. They have that chance right now.

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